Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/354

346 any repuration of power be worth preserving, at the expense of bringing sincerity into question. I remember, upon a Saturday, when the ministers, and one or two friends of the treasurer, constantly met to dine at his house, one of the company attacked him very warmly, on account that a certain lord, who perpetually opposed the queen's measures, was not dismissed from a great employment, which, beside other advantages, gave that lord the power of choosing several members of parliament. The treasurer evaded the matter with his usual answer, "That this was whipping day." Upon which, the secretary Bolingbroke, turning to me, said, "It was a strange thing that my lord Oxford would not be so kind to his friends, and so just to his own innocence, as to vindicate himself where he had no blame; for, to his knowledge and the chancellor's, (who was then also present) the treasurer had frequently and earnestly moved the queen upon that very point, without effect." Whereupon, this minister, finding himself pressed so far, told the company, "That he had at last prevailed with her majesty; and the thing would be done in two days:" which followed accordingly. I mention this fact as an instance of the earl of Oxford's disposition to preserve some reputation of power in himself, and remove all blame from the queen; and this, to my particular knowledge, was a frequent case; but how far justifiable in point of prudence, I have already given my opinion. However, the treasurer's friends were yet much more to blame than himself: he had abundance of merit with them all; not only upon account of the publick, the whole change of the ministry having been effected, without any intervention of theirs, by him and